TERTER, October 14. /TASS/. Artillery fire rages on in the Terter and Agdham districts adjacent to Nagorno-Karbakh, despite the ceasefire announced at Saturday night talks in Moscow, according to a TASS correspondent, who visited towns and villages located near the contact line.
Bomb shelter in the yard
At first, it seems that the situation in Terter is calmer than a week ago, before the truce. But when moving to the villages further west, the roar increases. Volley sounds are heard from both sides. Local residents show a crater on the highway - the shell fell there about an hour before the bus with journalists arrived. "They are shooting constantly," one of them replies to a TASS question whether the intensity of the shelling has decreased since the ceasefire.
In the village of Sarajaly, a blast wave demolished the facade of a store. Somewhere stone walls and iron gates were cut by fragments, masonry was damaged. In one of the villages, a shell hit the corner of a residential building, destroying an apartment.
The residential buildings are completely abandoned by the locals. Yet, regarding some private households, not everyone was ready to leave their homes. In the courtyard of almost every house, residents set up homemade bomb shelters: a trench about two meters deep with a deck made of logs. If the explosions sound close or the familiar whistle of a flying projectile is heard, people rush to hiding. Pomegranates and persimmons have ripened in the gardens, and in the fields cotton is awaiting. But doing agricultural work is now simply dangerous.
A similar situation is seen in the Aghdam region. On the way there, we were warned of an unexploded mine that was down the road. "Drive carefully," says a military officer at the post. The entire area is largely abandoned by residents. Once Aghdam was one of the largest cities in Karabakh and was known all across the Soviet Union for its wine and port, but now it is located in the so-called buffer zone and is controlled by the other side. The region's residents, who lived many years ago in its western part, dream of one day returning to their native places and again taking up winemaking.
In the meantime, villages to the west of its current center - the city of Guzanli - are in close proximity to the combat positions. The distance between the front lines here is only about a kilometer. However, as the head of the region, Vagif Hasanov, says, there are no soldiers or military equipment in the villages. The TASS correspondent who visited one of these villages was able to make sure that this was indeed true. Here, in the courtyards, bomb shelters were also set up, everywhere one can see traces of shells, burnt roofs, and broken frames.
The corridors of Power
Heavy shelling, Hasanov says, happened on Monday. He receives guests in the basement of an administrative building, where these days there is a bomb shelter and an office. There is a bed right behind the desk - the head of the district obviously has to spend the night here as well.
"The next day, 296 shells were fired across the district,"he continues. "Luckily, they did not hit the houses, but animals died, gardens were damaged, and warehouses were destroyed."However, residents are not always this "lucky".
According to the official, there are almost completely destroyed villages in the region, but it is dangerous to go there. "At the moment, eight civilians have already died in Aghdam," Hasanov said. "At least 31 people are in very serious condition in hospitals, and four have died of shock - their hearts stopped beating."